When I was growing up, one of the programs I would watch every Sunday morning (apart from Sunday Morning Cartoons on Doordarshan) was the Bournvita Quiz Contest hosted by Derek O’Brien on Zee TV. For kids interested in quizzing, O’Brien was like a Role Model. My school was seldom invited to participate in BQC so all I could feel about it was to get envy. A few years later I did get a chance to see him Live in Birla Auditorium in Jaipur when Discovery Channel organized a quiz. I, along with a school-mate, almost reached the City Finals of the quiz but couldn’t clear the last hurdle and missed a chance to meet him in person. But I always wondered how would it be to be quizzed by one of the most prominent Quizmasters in India.
I thought Quizmasters were like those highly intelligent gentlemen who could know everything. Even if they are just asking questions, they would certainly be more updated than most. In fact, his father Neil O’Brien was also a prominent name in the quizzing field. In terms of Quizmasters, one cannot ignore the biggest of them all, Siddharth Basu, another Bengali, the most renowned quizmaster was also the main person behind Kaun Banega Crorepati too. In short, I was always in awe of people who were quizmasters.
Many years later, O’Brien became a politician and now he is a Member of Parliament. Very recently he was seen almost getting physical with the Chairperson of the Rajya Sabha.
I always try to write in a non-judgemental way and avoid naming names. But when you see people you admire totally taking a backflip in their real lives from their reel lives, it teaches us a lesson. Keeping all the politics aside, I am just stating a point that whoever your role model is, the people you follow, the leaders who lead you, they are not the same people you might have seen in good light once. People just change, or are made to change with time.
Since your role models change, you should also keep updating the list of your role models. That’s all!
Header Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash
